My life hung in the balance. One wrong move, a delayed decision or action from those in charge of my care, would have made my wife a twenty-nine-year-old widow and my daughter fatherless.
But a series of coincidences (or maybe miracles) saved my life that day.
First, as we were getting ready to leave to visit the sheiks that day. My medic, Sergeant Krause, asked to tag along with our convoy.
“Hey sir, I know I normally don’t go out on missions with you but I feel like I should today,” he said.
Then one of my superiors, the battalion executive officer (XO), also asked to come.
“I haven’t been out with you in a while, and I’m bored,” Major Cotton said.
After the blast, the medic ran up to me, took one look and said, “We need to get this guy on a helicopter.” If they had taken me to the base “aid station” five kilometers away (normal procedure), I would have died in transit.
Because of his higher rank, the XO was able to call for a helicopter on a higher priority radio frequency in order to divert a helicopter that had already been in flight. So a helicopter arrived at the scene in five minutes instead of the usual thirty.
When the man who dispatched the helicopter heard that I, a stranger to him, needed to be picked up and was in really bad shape, he immediately sent an email to his home church in California. So within five minutes of the injury, Christians in California were praying for me at a time when I needed it most.
In the meantime, Sergeant Krause reached into the wound and applied direct pressure on the severed artery and vein. A tourniquet would have slipped into the wound and I would have bled to death on the scene.
When I heard the blades of the helicopter chopping the air above me I thought, “Oh thank God I’m saved,” passed out and woke up three weeks later out of a medically-induced coma at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
Lord, when you bless me with your care and provision, help me recognize it as your providence and not just a lucky break.
“For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.” (Psalm 91:11)